Visas

The United States has revoked the visas of three Palestinian Fulbright scholars whose cases were taken up personally by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice after Israel refused to let them leave Gaza for interviews, officials said. Visas for the three, along with a fourth Palestinian student from Gaza who had hoped to come to the U.S. under a different program, were approved after Rice intervened in June but were rescinded last week on the basis of "new information," officials said.

WASHINGTON - President Obama signed into law a bill Friday that will block Iran's new ambassador to the United Nations from entering the United States. The measure is the first substantial bill from Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a likely Republican presidential hopeful, to become law. It says the president can deny admission to any diplomat who “has been engaged in terrorist activity against the United States or its allies and may pose a threat to U.S. national security interests.” The bill is aimed at barring the entry of Hamid Aboutalebi, a veteran Iranian envoy who has acknowledged that he served as a part-time translator for Iranian militants during the 1979 U.S. Embassy crisis in Tehran.

France has agreed to drop its visa requirement for American tourists after Washington's announcement of a similar loosening of restrictions for French citizens, the Foreign Ministry said in Paris. No date has been set for the new regulation to take effect, a ministry spokesman said. Ministry sources, however, said they expect that Americans will be able to start entering France without visas this summer. The announcement comes one day after the State Department said the United States is dropping the requirement for tourist and business visas for citizens of six European countries, including France.

WASHINGTON - The White House will block Iran's choice of United Nations ambassador from entering the United States, officials said Friday, stoking new tension between Tehran and Washington as they approach a critical moment in negotiations over Iran's disputed nuclear program. Facing overwhelming bipartisan pressure from Congress, White House officials said Hamid Aboutalebi would not be granted a U.S. visa. The choice of the veteran diplomat set off an outcry in Washington because of his membership in the radical student group that stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held U.S. diplomats hostage during Iran's 1979 revolution.

25,500: Number of E-2 visas issued to investors and family members in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2010. 13.4%: Decline in the number of E-2 visas issued over the five-year period that ended in fiscal 2010. 8,578: Number of E-2 visas issued to Japanese nationals in fiscal 2010, the largest number that went to any of the 80 countries whose citizens are eligible to apply for E-2 visas. Source: U.S. State Department

A visa beef? The line starts here There is a very simple solution to the "Visa Vexation" issue [On the Spot by Catharine Hamm, Oct. 3]: Don't visit Brazil. If you are on a cruise line that has a port of call there, book another cruise. Do not plan to go to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil either. Maybe with the loss of hundreds of thousands in tourist dollars, they will figure it out. Scott Snyder Mission Viejo I found Hamm's response to the reader who complained about needing a visa for Brazil somewhat lacking.

"U.S. Considers Visa Grants for Skilled Workers" (July 25) takes me back to the '60s, when the farmers were looking for help to pick their crops. Now, we seem to be at the other end of the spectrum: high tech. High tech degrees from our universities in the electronics field apparently are not as important anymore. It seems that business degrees (especially MBAs), law degrees and medical fields have taken over. This has happened as U.S. manufacturing has gone to other countries, thereby moving our work force to service-oriented businesses.

L.A. rap collective Odd Future will have to unpack: Authorities in New Zealand have refused to allow the group into the country for a scheduled appearance Saturday opening for Eminem after deeming it a threat to public order. "It's not a decision we take lightly and not one that happens often,” Border Operations Manager Karen Urwin told reporters after announcing that the government would not approve visas for six members of the group. Odd Future member Tyler, the Creator tweeted “OF is banned from New Zealand, again.

The de facto ruler of Honduras said Saturday that Washington had pulled his U.S. visas as punishment for failing to reinstate President Manuel Zelaya, ousted more than two months ago. Roberto Micheletti, acting as president since the June 28 coup, said on a radio program that the visas of his foreign minister, Carlos Lopez, and 14 Supreme Court justices were also revoked. Micheletti said he accepted the U.S. decision but would remain firm in refusing to allow Zelaya to return to power.

Mexico has announced that beginning Oct. 23 it will again require visas for Brazilians, thousands of whom reportedly have been traveling to Mexico to enter the United States without documents. Brazil said it would begin requiring visas for Mexicans. Brazil and Mexico had agreed to waive visa requirements for each other in February 2004.

The FBI has arrested a Moroccan on suspicion of lying on immigration documents, which wouldn't necessarily be news, except that he also is suspected of plotting to blow up a school and a government building by attaching a Southern California-made bomb to a drone. The purported threat came to light this week in the affidavit of an FBI agent seeking to arrest 26-year-old El Mehdi Semlali Fahti. On Monday, a federal judge in Connecticut ordered Fahti held without bail. He has not been charged with any terrorism-related crimes.

BRUSSELS - The White House said it is “very disappointed” by Saudi Arabia's decision to deny a visa to a White House reporter for the Jerusalem Post who applied to cover President Obama's visit to that Middle East nation this week. The Kingdom did not offer an explanation for its decision to bar Michael Wilner, the paper's White House correspondent, from entering to cover two-day meeting between Obama and King Abdullah, the Jerusalam Post reported. Senior White House officials lobbied unsuccessfully on behalf of Wilner.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government will ban Russian officials and others involved in "threatening the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine" from receiving U.S. visas, the White House announced Thursday. The move, which adds to existing visa restrictions on people involved in human rights abuses in Ukraine, marks a further escalation of U.S. pressure on Russia over the crisis in Ukraine, where Russian gunmen have seized control of the strategic Crimean peninsula. In a statement, the White House said President Obama had signed an executive order that allows the government to impose sanctions on individuals and groups responsible for "undermining democratic processes or institutions in Ukraine; threatening the peace, security, stability, sovereignty, or territorial integrity of Ukraine; contributing to the misappropriation of state assets of Ukraine.

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State John F. Kerry announced on Tuesday a ban against issuing U.S. visas to foreigners implicated in wartime sexual violence. “No one at the highest level of military or governance who has presided over, or engaged in, or knew of, or adopted these kinds of attacks is ever going to receive a visa to travel into the United States of America from this day forward,” Kerry said during talks with his British counterpart, William Hague. Hague applauded the announcement.

L.A. rap collective Odd Future will have to unpack: Authorities in New Zealand have refused to allow the group into the country for a scheduled appearance Saturday opening for Eminem after deeming it a threat to public order. "It's not a decision we take lightly and not one that happens often,” Border Operations Manager Karen Urwin told reporters after announcing that the government would not approve visas for six members of the group. Odd Future member Tyler, the Creator tweeted “OF is banned from New Zealand, again.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Before serving as an interpreter for the U.S. military, Shafiq Nazari passed exhaustive background checks by U.S. military and intelligence agencies. The military trusted him enough to issue him an automatic rifle. He has fired it during several firefights with insurgents, fighting shoulder to shoulder with U.S. soldiers and Marines on about 200 combat missions in Afghanistan. Nazari, 38, a compact man with short-cropped hair and a trim black beard, has been issued a badge that gives him free run of a high-security U.S. base in downtown Kabul, where he translates for U.S. military advisors.

At least 31 suspected terrorists whose visas were revoked may still be in the U.S. because of continuing flaws in the visa program and poor communication between federal agencies, congressional investigators said Wednesday. The General Accounting Office said that while the government revokes visas of suspected terrorists, there is often little effort to find and remove those people from the country. GAO reviewed the 240 visas revoked between Sept. 11, 2001, and Dec.

January 9, 2014 | By Tina Susman, This post has been updated, as indicated below.

NEW YORK -- Prosecutors charged an Indian diplomat with visa fraud Thursday for lying to cover up her housekeeper's wretched working conditions, but it was not clear if the woman whose arrest sparked an international uproar would face U.S. justice. The U.S. attorney in Manhattan, Preet Bharara, said in court documents that he understood the defendant, Devyani Khobragade, had been granted diplomatic immunity and had “departed the United States today.” “Therefore the charges shall remain pending until such time as she can be brought to court,” he said. Later, a spokesman for Bharara said Khobragade had not left the country after all. [Updated, 8:29 p.m. PST Jan. 9: Late Thursday, however, the Associated Press reported that she had left the U.S. after a court hearing attended only by attorneys in the case.